AHC: Create a dieselpunk early twentieth century

From the time period of World War 1 all the way up to the post WW2 1940's saw a period of rapid technological advances. With everything from the first transatlantic flight to the first photo of Earth from orbit via a V2 Rocket occurring at this time period. While great economic booms such as the roaring twenties and post WW2 boom would give rise to a number of cultural and artistic movements. Yet it was also marred by great suffering with the rise of Hitler and Stalin in Europe, the economic hardships of Great Depression and the sheer loss of life produced by the Worlds Wars.

Now the big question is how can we make the time from roughly the 1910's all the way up to the 1940's as Dieselpunk as possible? Meaning technology that while possible would be far more advanced than what saw in OTL or never originally got built ended up seeing the light of day.
 
Drag WWI on as long as possible. Small scale so you don't get any devastation, but the great powers keep on going aftr eachother, over territory. Hard to not get devastation of course, especially once later 40's tech comes into play.

Whats important of course is to have the old skool people in power who hold on to old skool doctrines and tactics. That way the most crazy technology can be made without anyone actually developing something that will be the breakthrough in the war, or so slowely developed that the enemy will have an equivalent by the time it is field tested.
 
Drag WWI on as long as possible. Small scale so you don't get any devastation, but the great powers keep on going aftr eachother, over territory. Hard to not get devastation of course, especially once later 40's tech comes into play.

Whats important of course is to have the old skool people in power who hold on to old skool doctrines and tactics. That way the most crazy technology can be made without anyone actually developing something that will be the breakthrough in the war, or so slowely developed that the enemy will have an equivalent by the time it is field tested.
On the World War I angle Gunther Burstyn of the Austro-Hungarian army did technically design and build the first back in 1911. A full three years before the outbreak of the Great War, perhaps he was more successful in getting the A-H or German army interested in his design early on.
220px-HGM_Modell_Burstyn_Motorgesch%C3%BCtz.jpg


There was also Bashford Dean an American zoologist and medieval armor expert who's designs influenced US armor all the way up to the 1980's, even though his preferred helmet design was never adopted since it resembled German helmets to much. Now the interesting thing is he did a develop a supposedly effective piece of body armor that could stop enemy rounds & comparatively light weight using a combination of steel and sponge rubber.
american23.jpg
 
On the World War I angle Gunther Burstyn of the Austro-Hungarian army did technically design and build the first back in 1911. A full three years before the outbreak of the Great War, perhaps he was more successful in getting the A-H or German army interested in his design early on.
220px-HGM_Modell_Burstyn_Motorgesch%C3%BCtz.jpg


There was also Bashford Dean an American zoologist and medieval armor expert who's designs influenced US armor all the way up to the 1980's, even though his preferred helmet design was never adopted since it resembled German helmets to much. Now the interesting thing is he did a develop a supposedly effective piece of body armor that could stop enemy rounds & comparatively light weight using a combination of steel and sponge rubber.
american23.jpg

I don't know about the second one. Doesn't seem very dieselpunk to me.

Tanks are of course, but i doubt you can get an ongoing dieselpunk look with an earlier development of the tank. Unless they somehow only make heavy tanks and the heavier the better. Or on railtracks. if they hold to WWI idea you might see gastanks. But i'm a big fan of surrealism.
 
I don't know about the second one. Doesn't seem very dieselpunk to me.

Tanks are of course, but i doubt you can get an ongoing dieselpunk look with an earlier development of the tank. Unless they somehow only make heavy tanks and the heavier the better. Or on railtracks. if they hold to WWI idea you might see gastanks. But i'm a big fan of surrealism.
True. So a generally more intense WW1 which saw several innovations being introduced earlier... though maybe have it last about the same time as OTL. How does the idea of Sky Pirates sound?

There's also the Rigsby gun that could see actual adoption...
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uYu_kL6duWQ/VIzLrersosI/AAAAAAAACi4/mOexGpkuoLI/s1600/american23.jpg

Some periods within the time range that could be fun to explore.
  • Russian Civil War
  • Roaring twenties
  • Prohibition
  • Dust bowl
  • Great depression
  • Chinese Civil War
 
Tanks are of course, but i doubt you can get an ongoing dieselpunk look with an earlier development of the tank. Unless they somehow only make heavy tanks and the heavier the better. Or on railtracks. if they hold to WWI idea you might see gastanks. But i'm a big fan of surrealism.
Continue the line of Rhomboid heavy tanks after the Mark VIII International.

1596675913268.png
 
Here's a really neat photo of what people thought New York would like in the 1980's from the 1930's.
just-imagine-1930.png


Perhaps the Spanish flu was worse which led to the progress of technology to slow down to the point that the 1980's look more like the OTL 30's to 50's.
 
Here's a really neat photo of what people thought New York would like in the 1980's from the 1930's.
just-imagine-1930.png


Perhaps the Spanish flu was worse which led to the progress of technology to slow down to the point that the 1980's look more like the OTL 30's to 50's.

aesthetics usually don't work beyond people's own time, like thinking that we would still have the same architecture(in this case, art deco) 50 years later. Isn't that pic from the movie metropolis?
 

marathag

Banned
The World of Tomorrow, 1960, as seen in 1939 by General Motors

'More Things for More People'
Note Sliced Bread at 4:40 ;) for the March of Progress

8:00 in
aesthetics usually don't work beyond people's own time, like thinking that we would still have the same architecture(in this case, art deco) 50 years later.
Would take Art Deco over Brutalism and then Glass Boxes every time
 
The World of Tomorrow, 1960, as seen in 1939 by General Motors

'More Things for More People'
Note Sliced Bread at 4:40 ;) for the March of Progress

8:00 in

Would take Art Deco over Brutalism and then Glass Boxes every time
Beautiful! The World's Fairs are definitely a great source on this.

Hear hear. Plus let us not forget the streamline modern aesthetic.
 
The World of Tomorrow, 1960, as seen in 1939 by General Motors

'More Things for More People'
Note Sliced Bread at 4:40 ;) for the March of Progress

8:00 in

Would take Art Deco over Brutalism and then Glass Boxes every time

Ah i see, funny those videos always. So positive.

Yeah i never liked Brutalism. But i'm quite Art Deco tired. Why not international style or Constructivism? Its not the only early 20th century architecture.
 
No Great War or a brief one with Xmas truce kinda thing.

The world economy was more globalized than it’d be again for the rest of the century. Passports were a ludicrous idea, so Europeans could travel and emigrate freely. Inventors were hip and cool. Millions of people that died probably had awesome ideas. The Russian commies killed more of their own citizens than the Tsars ever bothered with, its on the unlikelier side but a reformed stable Russia and China alone would be vast boosts to the world.

World War I ground everything to a halt followed by the Pandemic and then after a brief decade boom utter collapse and then another more expensive war. That’s just for the lucky powers, keep in mind: China, Russia, Korea, let alone Africa… all messed up by the wars and industrialization that could have worked and the Europeans and Americans certainly didn’t help matters

War only takes theory and applies it. So you see some crazy gains as the money flows and all the pet projects are a go. But the money and lives spent rapidly outweigh the short term gains.

So no/short WWI for whatever reason, maybe a Cold War between power blocks to spur funding could be useful but actual multi year war between Great Powers is a bad idea lol

Edit: pre 1900 answer would be easier. Get those British Difference/Analytical Engines running plus some punchcard controlled French lathes (and Lovelace to write the software) and you have yourself the Steampunk stew that leads to crazy dieselpunk as well.
 
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No Great War or a brief one with Xmas truce kinda thing.

The world economy was more globalized than it’d be again for the rest of the century. Passports were a ludicrous idea, so Europeans could travel and emigrate freely. Inventors were hip and cool. Millions of people that died probably had awesome ideas. The Russian commies killed more of their own citizens than the Tsars ever bothered with, its on the unlikelier side but a reformed stable Russia and China alone would be vast boosts to the world.

World War I ground everything to a halt followed by the Pandemic and then after a brief decade boom utter collapse and then another more expensive war. That’s just for the lucky powers, keep in mind: China, Russia, Korea, let alone Africa… all messed up by the wars and industrialization that could have worked and the Europeans and Americans certainly didn’t help matters

War only takes theory and applies it. So you see some crazy gains as the money flows and all the pet projects are a go. But the money and lives spent rapidly outweigh the short term gains.

So no/short WWI for whatever reason, maybe a Cold War between power blocks to spur funding could be useful but actual multi year war between Great Powers is a bad idea lol

Edit: pre 1900 answer would be easier. Get those British Difference/Analytical Engines running plus some punchcard controlled French lathes (and Lovelace to write the software) and you have yourself the Steampunk stew that leads to crazy dieselpunk as well.
Actually on the Great War angle J._P. Morgan Jr. was a significant financial backer of the Entente throughout the war. Providing them with much needed loans that led to a failed assassination attempt in 1915. So let's say here he died instead which led to the war ending in late 1915 or early 1916 in Imperial Germany's favor, while both Russia and China still fell into Civil War (perfect excuse for Sky Pirates).

It would be interesting to see a continually evolving "punk" timeline where we see it starting out as the steampunk created by the Difference Engine to cyberpunk by the end of the millennium.
 
oh yes. Thats the Fallout series style. I've always been amused by Googie.

But thats Atompunk.
True. Though there is some overlap between the two, maybe have it eventually evolving into atompunk sometime in the mid twentieth century?

I do like the idea of the 19th century being slightly steampunk to help explain the dieselpunk nature of the twentieth. That and it's just a good excuse to have airships being more common.

Any more ideas?
 
The obvious idea: somehow butterfly away the rise of fascism and the resulting WWII. May be have a more influential League of Nations get all major economies to work together to solve the crisis rather then retreat into isolationism.

For more/longer Dieselpunk esthetic: delay the various national freeway/Autobahn systems in Europe and America and keep relying on aerodynamically optimized trains and passenger airplanes for intercity transports. As for airplanes: with the big airports on the outskirts of the city hobbled by the lack of access from cars, floatplanes/seaplanes taking off from a pier where the river crosses downtown will take over inter-city travel.
 
The thing is WW2 was generally closer to the end of dieselpunk with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima marking the beginning of the Age of the Atom.
 
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